


You are not alone. I've been here the whole time.

by DaylightDaydreams



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: (a bit of headcanons on how dark magic works based on TVDU lore), (at least most of the time), (we are blowing things up Dark Josie Style), BAMF Hope Mikaelson, Dark Hope Mikaelson, Eclipse Crystal™️, F/F, F/M, Josie is perceptive, Magical Coma, Mora Miserium Lore, Morally Grey Hope Mikaelson, Season 3 non-canon (Canon divergence), They have been through a lot and we are talking about it even if gradually, but in a more metaphorical way, things are way more complex, we will talk about their mental health
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:00:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28919454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaylightDaydreams/pseuds/DaylightDaydreams
Summary: Things are not quite as they seem.Or;Hope is full of dark magic, the reason for the coma we’re others and the kiss was, in fact, not the answer.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 31
Kudos: 162





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story came to me by reading a tweet from @Th3Nutcase, who was kind enough to let me write something based on it.

Witches learn this ever since they are young. 

Actions have reactions, spells can give but they also can take. 

Nature has rules, sometimes loopholes happen, but you are not supposed to rely on that. You’re not supposed to by-pass your own limits. 

Your magic is linked to your soul, to your very core. Keeping it healthy is the same thing as taking a warming bath when you’re cold, and crying when you’re sad. 

There’s danger in messing with the unknown. There’s danger in messing with another’s magic in a deep level. 

Consequences will come from the actions, now if they are going to be good or bad... well that’s a whole another story.

But what are rules when the life of the people you care about are in line? How do these rules apply to you when you are the only one of your kind that has ever existed? 


	2. Emotions can make you confused, memories can hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone.  
> I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter.  
> I’d love to hear what you guys think about it, so feel free to comment.  
> If y’all have any questions, make sure to drop them.

Hope Mikaelson was currently processing a larger amount of emotions than she ever did.

To be fair, even for her ( _Tribrid, Miracle Baby, Nature Loophole, Noxus Vorti, and all_ ), it was kinda hard wrapping your head around waking up in a fairytale-esque world that just so happens to be one of her friends subconscious, trying to find said friends real self because she was tricked into doing dark magic, as things in life really have this pesky-annoying ability to get worse even when you think they have hit the peak, she then had to flee from said friends evil-dark-magic-infused-alter-ego only to be turned into stone in her friends subconscious.

Her body might not be moving but her mind was doing leaps. For one, everything felt cold and static, even for the girl who runs warm due to her werewolf genes. Everything is awfully cold. Her body feels heavy as if she had ran an marathon without getting prepared for it first.

But her mind did leaps around the people she had grew to care about.

_Josie. Lizzie. Landon. Rafael. MG. Kaleb. Jed_

She hoped (no pun intended) that the plan worked, that Josie was now okay and back to her normal self and that this was one of those weird dreams she would get once in a while, that was often followed by a slight existential crisis when she would wake up.

Then she feels it that eerily feeling your gut gives you when you know something is about to happen. That keeps you guarded, that is a slight indicator to the fight-or-flight defense.

Everything around her swirls and suddenly that frozen pitch-black darkness has a slight blue glow to it.

A blue glow that’s far to familiar, far to terrifying.

That brings memories. A lot of them, from different times but that are all rooted in the feeling of fear, helplessness and despair.

Dust-Mist like version of said memories appear and vanish in seconds, as if they were a reflection in moving water.

Whispers are in her ears, talking in a fast pace all at the same time making Hope shut her eyes.

Hollow, it was just when Inadu had possessed her, that burning feeling in her head. The feeling she was seconds from loosing all control over herself.

“Always and Forever.” The voices of her parents and family overlapped one another in a slight cacophonous chorus.

The words she lived by, the words that weren’t simple words, but a part of her.

Hope felt a crippling cold rush ran through her body. The feeling was the feeling she got when she used dark magic, when the Hollow’s essence was inside of her.

Her heart pounded in her chest as response. A thousand emotions rushed through her in a single moments.

_Happiness. Anger. Joy. Awe. Amusement. Adoration. Longing. Cheerfulness. Fear. Sorrow. Disgust. Contempt. Guilt. Remorse. Bitterness. Fear. Shame. Insecurity. Hopelessness. Agitation. Bravery. Torment. Sadness. Alarm. Hysteria. Nervousness. Calmness. Insecurity. Worry. Distress. Calmness. Serenity._

It was overwhelming, as if everything she ever felt was coming back at once.

And then all she saw was black, when suddenly a sharp pain made itself present on her chest, and she felt a magic that wasn’t hers, merging with her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS.  
> A few thing I wanted to say.  
> 1 - As you guys probably noticed, I’ll explore a bit of Hope’s experience with being possessed by the Hollow, because there’s no way she was possessed twice and was simply indifferent towards it.  
> 2 - This Hope will be more like “The Originals Hope”, meaning her magical limits are pretty much nonexistent (that will play a big part into the story as we move forward)


	3. Tellings of reality, blue eyes and heart songs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title of the chapter comes from a poem I wrote based on “Seven” by Taylor Swift.

To say that the last year has sucked, would be the biggest understatement of the century. But it was really silly, Josie thinks, for her to think she would be able to get a sense of normalcy. 

First of all, yes she did terrible things, but she was infused with dark magic after being mislead by an authority figure that turned out to be Landon’s stupid and creepy half-brother.

She killed Alyssa, she blew up the school, she forced the merge on Lizzie.

And now is either avoiding her or full on bullying her for something out of her control.

Her father is useless as always, both as a headmaster and as a father, her sister is by her side (“ _we are Twins, Josette. That wasn’t you! It was Sister Satan_ ”), her friends are careful but somehow there, well except Hope.

Hope who was vanished from the face of the earth since saving Josie from her own Evil self in her head. Hope, whom she hasn’t seen even the shadow of.

(Not only Josie, but anyone really.) 

Alaric being useless pushes them towards an field day because yeah. You almost loose both of your daughters, and you don’t even want them near you, also God forbid you ask how they are doing.

The solution to all the problems is going to the Park.

That seems to be the only thing the whole school agrees on, this is stupid.

It gets even worse when Josie finds herself dunked into mud and then all of them scramble to find someone worthy of Excalibur.

Yeah, _that_ Excalibur. As in King Arthur and his Knights.

Nimue, even appeared to them, and yeah as in The Lady of the Lake. 

Who has blue skin, and looks nothing like most of movies (nor the Comic Books, Josie hears MG say to Pedro out of all people, because the Little Boy has joined them). 

And after a lot of scramble, Raf turns out to be the one able to pull it from the stone. 

And he’s also the descendant of King Arthur, according to Nimue. 

So yeah, you can say it was quite the day. 

Josie is walking towards her room after finally taking a bath and getting into her pijamas, when she’s almost run over by someone, well almost is being gentle, she and the person fall to the floor. 

The next second Josie registers auburn hair, fresh paint and rain scent and she freezes when blue eyes meet her own. 

“Hope?” 

“Oh, Hey Josie.” Hope says when she stands up. 

“You’re back?” Josie asks carefully she’s not really sure of where the girl stands. If she’s pissed at her or if things are normal.

“Yeah? I mean I was in Landon’s room just now but I’m going to my room.”

“No.” Josie says. “I mean, you’re back for good?”

“What do you mean?” Hope says crossing her arms and Josie notices she has sweatpants and a shirt on, that hug her figure like a glove. 

“You vanished from the face of earth, Hope.”

Hope frowns looking at her confused.

“I was in a magical coma, just woke up like hours ago.” Hope says slowly. “Didn’t your father tell-“ she cuts herself short and shakes her head in a humorless laugh. “Of course he didn’t. Tell me, Love, what was the cover story your father gave the school this time?” 

Josie blinks for a moment, at both Hope’s sarcastic tone and the “love”. “That you had gone home.” 

“Honestly... I don’t even know why I am surprised.” Hope says with an eye roll. “I’m assuming my family doesn’t know either.”

“Not even our mom knew about me getting infused with dark magic she just texted Lizzie to say she’s coming here.” 

“Hopefully to kick Alaric out.” Hope says and Josie looks at her. “I despise liars. They are worse than actual manipulative people. Thin white lies turn into manipulation pretty quickly.”

“That’s true.” Josie says slowly, not quite sure if that was an indirect to her carelessness on trusting Clarke, her anger at liars in general or if was Hope’s anger over Alaric not contacting her family and finding a way to get her out of slumber quicker. 

Hope then wordlessly turns to walk upstairs. 

“Um... Hope, how did you exactly wake up?”

“Landon kissed me.” She says, and as Josie tries to ignore the weirdly familiar feeling in her chest she notices that Hope sounds rather robotic, with an angry undertone. 

“Goodnight.” Hope says and turns, getting away from Josie’s view. 

Josie let’s a shuddering breath leave her and looks at the huge fireplace in the room. She looks at the flames and lets her brain roam through the conversation, the feeling she just got.

She’s falling for Hope Mikaelson, all over again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boundaries, from the characters towards others and towards themselves, will be present in this work.  
> Josie doesn’t push Hope’s even though she realizes her robotic mannerisms at the end.  
> The twins will have boundaries with each other, because they are trying to be less codependent (I will also touch on that, on Lizzie’s Bipolar disorder and MG’s AHDH, they are canon and should be explored to bring not only awareness and representation to those conditions, but to give characters depth — a large part of population today deals with them and representation is important).


	4. Mind, Worries and Talks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, everyone.  
> This chapter was longer but I decided the twins deserved a chapter focusing on them, so I can show a bit of the dynamic they are onto at the moment (Ps. What happened in 3x01; the mud and Lizzie/Josie pseudo-fighting didn’t happen; and Josie took her magic back from the coin thanks to Janie’s advice.)

Something is off, completely off.

Or at least Josie thinks so, part of her thinks she’s a bit paranoid at the moment, but she can’t help it.

Hope’s behavior the night before was weird to say the least. The way she acted, spoke... she could blame it all on the magical coma but Josie had a feeling it was something else.

“JO!”

A voice startles her from her thoughts making her jump, only to find her twin looking at her. “What Liz?

“You’re thinking so hard, I can practically hear the gears of your brain.” Lizzie says sitting on her bed and facing her twin.

“It’s nothing.” Josie says shaking her head and finishing fixing her hair.

“Josette Lucas, don’t you lie to me!” Lizzie practically hisses to her sister.

Josie rolls her eyes, knowing her sister, she won’t drop it. She didn’t drop it before the “Dark Josie” catastrophe, before the “we gotta be less codependent and grow as individuals too” conversation, so she surely isn’t dropping it now.

“Have you seen Hope? Since she woke up?” Josie asks carefully, looking at her sister.

“When I came back from the bathroom. It was rather quick, we didn’t really chat... why?” Lizzie replies, raising an eyebrow.

“She’s acting weird.”

“It’s Hope, Josie. I think that’s her being consistent.”

Josie looks at her sister unamused. “I don’t mean it like that.”

Lizzie’s eyebrows furrow. “What are you talking about then?”

“Yesterday. She talked with me, she seemed cold, distant... I mean not even when she was avoiding everyone she was that distant, she looked a bit out of touch, a bit-“

“Robotic? Detached?” Lizzie cuts in.

Josie nods, “You noticed it too, then I’m not paranoid.”

“No. And neither am I.” Lizzie says letting out a sigh. “I though I was imagining things.”

“So now what?” Josie says standing up.

“Well, wether Mikaelson wants or not at this moment, we are her friends now. So we keep an eye on her and try to see what’s going on, basically what you did when I had my episodes.”

Josie nods in agreement. She moves towards her wardrobe and gets her shoes. As soon as she finds the beige ankle boots she was looking for she turns.

“How’s therapy going by the way?”

“Amazing!” Lizzie says a bright smile taking up her features. “Janie actually listens to me, unlike Emma. She found some medicine that doesn’t have that effect in which I get drowsy which is great.”

Josie can practically feel her sister happiness, relief and contempt radiating from her. And she agrees Janie, had being a blessing mainly because she did what the adults around here didn’t, she listened.

“I’m glad you liked her, too, and that you two are making progress.”

“We are. I really wish I had gone to her since the beginning would have been so much easier for all of us.”

“No, no. None of that.” Josie says rushing to take Lizzie’s hands on her own. “We were kids, who had to take responsibilities that were supposed to lay at the hand of adults. We adapted and made mistakes, because well that’s life, according to Janie, that’s what life is for.” Josie tilts her head as if in deep thought before continuing. “And honestly I’m proud of us. With a father like ours we are rather resilient and turned out pretty well.”

“Props to Mom, honestly. Because Pedro is a better father to his teddy bear. Than dad is too us.” Lizzie replies with a pointed look.

“Okay, That is true.” Josie says with a bittersweet smile. “But mom is coming home, so at least we will have her here.”

“Dad is screwed.”

“Tell me about it. He didn’t tell Mom about the Clarke/Vardemus situation and she only figures out Evil me because of you.”

“That’s gonna be a lot of yelling... or passive aggressive talking.”

“Yes. I have some words to say myself if we are being honest.”

“Oh, you’re not the only one, for sure.” Lizzie says.

A beat of silence passes between them, just silently in each other presence, hands intertwined with each other. In a happy mirror version of the nightmare that almost happened.

There’s something about a twin bond that only those who experience it can get. It’s that oneness of self becoming a twoness. It’s that effortless connection. Being a twin means you’ll never know anyone quite so well or be known so completely by anyone else, you shared a womb after all. It’s both reassuring and exhausting, a weird yet wonderful thing.

“I’m really glad to have you in my life, you know?” Lizzie says. “You always took care of me no matter what.”

“You did the same for me.”

“Not always.”

“Lizzie, you fought Dark-Magic-Evil me to have me back. You did the same.” Josie says pulling Lizzie in her arms.

“Love you, Jo.”

“Love you, Liz.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so Janie is Janie Turner (Meagan Tandy), my OC, she’s the new psychologist/guidance counselor at Salvatore School and a Witch. (Because those kids have been though a lot, and need someone to be effective). 
> 
> The twins are working on their health and on their relationship with themselves and each other. 
> 
> Caroline will be back by next chapter (possibly bringing someone else with her) and things will star to get on motion. 
> 
> Some truths are about to be spilled.


	5. Some Truths and some surprises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by the chaotic vibes of my brain.  
> I hope y’all enjoy it.

The Salvatore school as of late was used to a bit of chaos. I mean, when you add the fact that the students are supernatural and monsters constantly appear, you just learn to live with the chaos and so deemed “unusual” and “weird” things happening on a daily. 

The chaos that no one predicted to have in an early Wednesday morning however was a blonde hurricane bursting into the headmaster’s office.  
The few students that were in the hall stopped in confusion and those who weren’t awake soon would in the result of the rather heated conversation that was currently taking place.

“What on earth is wrong with you?!” Caroline yelled at the man who was sitting behind the table, not even giving him a chance to speak.  
“Caroline?”

“Yes, Alaric. It’s me.” Caroline hisses in anger. “Or does your inability to inform me of things is because you don’t see them even when they are right in front of your eyes.”

“I don’t get what you-“

“You don’t get what I mean?” Caroline says a deadly mocking tone taking over her voice. “I didn’t get a word about what was happening. A single word from YOU!”

“I-“

“I’m not done,” Caroline says raising a hand and giving the men a glare that effectively shuts him up. “My daughter was infused with dark magic because of your inability to even talk to her.”

“You could have talked with her,” Alaric says.  
And Caroline glares at him.

“Yes I could, but was trying to save her and her sister’s lives. But you are right, I could have if she had gone to Europe. But she stayed because she cares about you. And didn’t want for you to do exactly what you are doing right now.” Caroline says pointing to the bourbon bottles. “You ignored her. Made her fall into the manipulations of a crazy man.”

“You didn’t tell me about Malivore monsters resurfacing. Lizzie was trapped in an 80’s simulation, do you know that? Your ever so competent psychologist-paramour, sent some of our students to Prison World to be in the same place as the Sociopath that killed Jo, that tried to kill the twins. Neither she nor you were able to realize Jade had shut off her humanity. That the way you had been treating Alyssa was being damaging to her, memory spells?! A freakin Mora Miserium and no call. The girls get sent to prison world and meet Kai, he scapes, the necromancer gets back, Josie is a walking bomb of dark magic and you don’t even have the decency to send me a text. And don’t you even get me started on Hope.”

The sound of the door opening then the five people that appear afterward makes Alaric go pale.

“I believe you can leave the part to us, Love.” The only men out of the group said.

Rebekah, Freya, Keelin, Davina, and Kol Mikaelson, stare with variations of the same deadly angry look at the man.

“Can you imagine my surprise when I woke up from a Dark Japanese magic spell cast by your daughter with memories that I had spent a whole summer trying to recall?” Freya says. “I came here on Thanksgiving to check on Hope and she told me what happened. I go back manage to bring everyone’s memories back and we start to fill into the blanks and guess what?”

“You hadn’t said a thing about Malivore, Necromancer, Hope practically being the first in the line of defense of the school, anything about the Merge. So the question here is... What the fuck do you think you are doing?” Kol cuts in.  
“Better than that. Who the fuck do you think you are?!” Rebekah says. “She’s only here for her education, not for you to brainwash and gaslight her into throwing herself into danger!”

“We are waiting for the explanation,” Keelin says, her eyes flickering yellow for a second. “And you better be quick.”

The door opens again and Lizzie and Josie enter the room, alongside Hope, Kaleb, MG, Jed, Rafael, and Landon. And the first three freeze when they see who’s there.

“MOM!” The twins say in unison and throw themselves at Caroline while Rebekah engulfs Hope into a hug.

As soon as Rebekah, lets her go, the rest of the family one by one copies the action.

“So I suppose we are saying some truths,” Lizzie says looking at Caroline.

“Yeah, Baby Blonde.” Kol says looking at Lizzie, “Your father has some explaining to do.”

Lizzie rolls her eyes at the nickname but shares a look with Josie.

“May we have a word in?” Josie asks and Alaric looks at her dumbfounded.

“Josette!”

“You think that after everything I would be quiet?” Josie says, glaring at him. “I stayed here to care for you. I lost a whole summer with Mom and Lizzie in Europe. The first thing you did was ignore me and continued to do so on and on. I was practically a walking ticking bomb and you didn’t give a damn. I spent my whole life feeding a cycle of codependency with my sister because you didn’t give a damn about us.”

“You made me believe I was unstable. You hired a psychologist/guidance counselor that constantly gaslighted me into believing I was crazy. That I wouldn’t ever be able to go through my life as a functioning person because I had a Mental Illness.” Lizzie said angrily. “You made me and Josie build a toxic cycle! You didn’t realize when any of the students were in trouble. You made us siphon away our biological mother!”

“WHAT?!” Freya, Davina, and Caroline yelled.

“You had them undo the Necromancer spell?!” Davina hissed angrily. 

Hope looks at Alaric and her eyes flicker into gold.

“How do you think you have any right to call my father a monster after everything that you did?” She says, her eyes now gold. “You constantly ignore your daughters, you make me sit in classes where my father is called the Great Evil, that’s when I don’t miss classes because I need to go on recruiting missions and fight against monsters. You neglect the student needs to the point where you didn’t realize one of them had turned off their humanity and the other was on the verge of a breakdown!” Hope is yelling at this point and the room is shaking slightly. “You sent three students to a prison world with an actual psychopath. You didn’t say a word when I thought the only way out of the monsters was sacrificing myself to Malivore. You didn’t say a word about what was happening to my family, or Mrs. Forbes-Salvatore, or hell even to Miss Bennett.”

Lizzie and Josie each touch one of Hope’s shoulder, and the room still a bit. “Did you even think that one of them could have more answers than you? Or that they could at least help?! You constantly say my father was a narcissistic, controlling, paranoid monster, but did you ever took a look at yourself?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so... what y’all think?   
> I brought in everyone (lol).   
> I grilled Alaric... yet well wait until the next chapter 👀😈   
> Miss Bennett is Bonnie Bennett, for those who don’t know.   
> Nik and Marcel are outside because Nik is a toddler and things can get pretty messy when Mikaelson’s Wrath comes into play.


End file.
